Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane business, the 1950s featured many significant milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a variety of manufacturers were starting to make more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These kinds of machines dominated the construction market for both office and apartment block construction. A lot of of the leading tower crane manufacturers didn't use cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, the use of luffing jibs became the regular method.
Within Europe, there were key improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Often, construction sites were constricted areas. Having to depend on rail systems to transport several tower cranes, ended up being very expensive and difficult. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms that enabled parts of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it can grow along with the structures it was building upwards.
These specific cranes have long jibs and could cover a bigger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes inside the lift shaft of a building. After that, this is the technique that became the industry standard.
From the 1960s, the main focus on tower crane development and design started to cover a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. Additionally, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.